War In Gaza: Why Now?

Election Politics?

It was widely reported that Israel agreed to delay any war against Iran until after U.S. elections.

A little over a week after the election, Israel launched a “targeted assassination” against the leader of Hamas (who Haaretz called Israel’s subcontractor in Gaza). That is what started the current round of fighting.

On November 14, Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari was murdered in a Israeli missile attack. In a bitter irony, barely a few hours before the attack, Hamas received the draft proposal of a permanent truce agreement with Israel.

“Hours before Hamas strongman Ahmed Jabari was assassinated, he received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip.”(Haaretz, November 15, 2012)

The targeted assassination of Ahmed Jabari was followed by an extensive bombing campaign under Operation Pillar of Cloud. The latter consists of a carefully planned military endeavor.

Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barack has confirmed a scenario of military escalation, blaming Palestine for having committed acts of aggression: .

“[t]he provocations we have suffered and the firing of rockets to the southern settlements within Israel have forced us to take this action. I want to make clear that Israeli citizens will not suffer such actions. The targets are to hit the rockets and to harm the organization of Hamas.”

The Israeli attacks were followed by the firing of dozens of rockets by Hamas against Israel.

Palestine’s response was known to Israeli war planners. The resulting Israeli civilian casualties are now being used to justify military escalation on humanitarian grounds.

What we are dealing with is a carefully planned operation, a clear act of provocation. The deaths of Israeli civilians (envisaged and foreseen by IDF military planners) are being used to muster the support of the Israeli public.

Meanwhile, the Israeli attack is casually portrayed by the Western media as part of a legitimate counter-terrorism agenda.

(Rabbi Arthur Waskow agrees that Israel started the fighting. Glenn Greenwald notes that America’s targeted assassination policy is identical to that of Israel. This could escalate quickly. Not only are Israel and Hamas exchanging rocket fire – with casualties of children on both sides – but Israel is calling up 75,000 reserve soldiers ahead of a possible ground invasion of Gaza.)

Israel is holding its own elections in January. Many commentators say that the attacks on Gaza are a cynical ploy by the Israeli Prime Minister to win re-election:

Netanyahu was accused by left-wing opposition Hadash party MP Mohammed Baraka [the leader of the Israeli Hadash opposition party] of “making another round in a circle of blood for cynical political interests” and “speculating in the blood of the Palestinian people.”

***

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn denounced the regime, saying that “once again Israel has wantonly attacked the people of Gaza, bombing and killing.

“This is effectively a first world state attacking a poor and largely defenceless population. It looks like a rerun of Operation Cast Lead,” he said.

“The timing is interesting and it looks like Netanyahu is creating a crisis to ensure his re-election”, the MP added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping the offensive in the Gaza Strip wins his Likud party more votes in January’s election.

***

“When the cannons roar, we see only Netanyahu and Barak on the screen, and all the other politicians have to applaud them,” wrote the daily Haaretz in a commentary published Thursday. “The assassination of (Hamas’ top military commander Ahmed) Jabari will go down in history as another showy military action initiated by an outgoing government on the eve of an election.”

Indeed, one can conclude that the most recent offensive against militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip– which started Wednesday with the killing of Jabari — has been conceived as more of a show fight for the Israeli public than the beginning of a decisive battle.

So why snuff out al-Jabari? Simple. Israel goes to the polls in January. Thus emerges Bibi’s political campaigning in full-action mode. Campaign motto: Let’s kill Palestinians. With such thrills on offer, any other Israeli political voice – even slightly dissenting – is drowned.

Precursor to War with Iran?

The top British Rabbi – when asked by the BBC on his thoughts on what’s really going on in Gaza right now – replied:

This escalation occurs just days after widespread reports about newly reelected Obama mulling a grand bargain with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Barbara Slavin and Laura Rozen at Al-Monitor reported on Monday that US officials told them Washington was considering offering a “more for more” deal with Iran, based on the fuel swap deal from Obama’s first term.

So what does Israel’s impending war on defenseless Gaza have to do with Iran diplomacy? Here’s a tweet from the Tehran bureau chief for the New York Times, Thomas Erdbrink:

I suspect this point was not lost on the Israeli leadership, either. So, is Netanyahu knowingly escalating military tensions in order to avoid a successful diplomatic overture? I’m speculating, but it isn’t far fetched. We know from extensive reporting, mainly in Israeli media, that in 2010 – just as President Obama requested a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank with the aim of resuming peace talks – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to provoke Iran into a war with Israel that would eventually drag in the United States.

It reminds me of what former CIA Middle East analyst Paul Pillar referred to this week as “Netanyahu’s tension-stoking brinksmanship: to divert attention from continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and inaction on the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” “[T]he Iran issue,” Pillar has previously written, provides a “distraction” from international “attention to the Palestinians’ lack of popular sovereignty.” Now the situation seems reversed: Israel is escalating war with Gaza to maintain deadlock with their favorite scapegoat, Iran.

Israel, lest we forget, instigated this resumption of missile exchanges last week when two Palestinian civilians were shot and killed and Israeli tanks intruded into Gaza, prompting Gaza militants to respond by targeting Israeli soldiers, which then gave Israel an excuse to unleash successive airstrikes. And Israel had numerous chances to pacify the situation, considering Hamas publicly offered to establish a total ceasefire and Egypt appeared about to broker a truce between the two. Israel has intentionally inched towards escalation from the beginning. Are we to believe this isn’t strategic?

A second theory is that this is a prelude to an Israeli attack on Iran. Specifically, some theorize that Israeli is trying to assassinate top Hamas militants before hitting Iran … so that Iran’s proxy Hamas cannot retaliate.

A third theory is that Israel is trying to drag Iran into a war. Given that Israeli treatment of Palestinians is perhaps the key source of hostility towards the current Israeli administration in the Arab world, starting a war in Gaza may be an attempt by Israeli to drag Iran into war.

After all, Iran backs Hamas, and Israel just assassinated a top Hamas leader after making an overture of peace to him. So some believe that Israel is attempting to poke the hornet’s nest in an attempt to justify wider war.

By provoking Hamas into attacking, Israel might point to Hamas-backer Iran. Specifically, Israel may claim that pre-emptive strikes on Iran are “necessary” to undermine Hamas and make sure it doesn’t obtain “weapons of mass destruction”.

As long as there is one single Palestinian left on their land the state of Israel will be only that……a state in Palestine.
This is Ponce

In and out of the safe room

I think you have this one wrong. This started with the attack in Sudan – a facility supposedly funded by Iran that produced and stored longer range Fajr missiles for Hamas. What is going on here is Hamas was coming into possesion of longer range missiles that Israel viewed as a strategic threat, and this operation was undertaken to prevent this. There was also pressure building on Netanyahu to restore some sense of normalcy to life for the residents of the South of Israel, people who have been living a nightmare for far too long. While Netanyahu lost some ground in the polls recently, he was still quite a shoe-in for PM in the next election. Just weeks ago he was boasting how he avoided getting Israel involved in any wars. He was dragged into this by circumstances.

Silver Lining

Well put indeed … however, GW ‘s insight might still be applicable even with the details as you provide them. Can you direct me to a more in-depth look a the Sudan situation as you describe it ? I am having no luck finding details about that.

shachalnur

another option; Rothschild controlled Obama has been ordered to pull the plug on Zionism.

Zionism has served it’s purpose ,and Israel will be left a choice;

controlled landing,end of Zionism,or going down kicking and screaming possibly dragging the world down with her.

Rothschild always planned to do this,it took Israel untill june 2012 to understand this.

They desperately tried to get Romney in power and failed.

The pressure will increase on Israel ,and US,Britain and Europe will supprt Israel in word and will do nothiing else.

Rothschild left a huge sword-diagram in the centre of Jerusalem that tells this story for at least 20 years.

Hidden in plain view ,in your face.

Hannitysfriend

God is with Israel and will not be defeated. Read the Bible.

Arminius Aurelius

Israel is the Anti Christ . They are the 4 th Reich , much more EVIL than the 3 rd Reich .
Talk about a Holocaust , the Palestinians are suffering much more in their Concentration Camps than the Jews . The Jews were put to work because of the labor shortage but were housed and fed . The Palestinians have been enduring a 64 year Holocaust with no end in sight . There will never be a peace treaty because of Israels intention to restore the Biblical Borders of the Kingdom of David and Solomon . [ Clearly stated by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion in 1956 and again by P.M. Ariel Sharon in 1993. ] Therefore non stop WAR is necessary . The Israeli national anthem is ” Onward Christian Soldiers ”
” What EVIL lurks in the hearts of men , the Shadow knows .”

Gary B.

In the end, after all the talk and foot shuffling, a Jewish King will walk down the Mt. of Olives and take his throne over all of Jerusalem, over all the ancient land of Israel. And then the whole earth.

Lisa D’Alia

Hey Porter Stansbury, if this is your take on the situation you don’t know history nor the Judeo-Christian bible and how God made an eternal covenant with Israel through Abraham but you are seriously spinning this to make it appear as though Israel is to blame and they are somehow “occupying” Gaza. For a smart guy with the financials, you’re not too smart on the historical and political. You’ve bought the narrative from the leftists and holywoodites spewing their false rhetoric and imbecile knowledge of the Israel-Arab relationship. Palestine, by the way was never on Jewish land nor did they ever have a right to it. It was unoccupied from 1917-1948 when the UN declared Israel a state. Better bone up on this issue and stop towing the liberlals’ biased and dangerous rhetoric

jesse

More than that- Palestine WAS Israel. Somehow in the last few decades it has come to mean (to most people who settle for education by mass media) a ficticious area of Israel supposedly settled by Arab-only Palestinians. Archaeology shows that the area was settled by Jews. Yes both Jews and Arabs have lived there as nomadic peoples for centuries but it was settled and cities were built and the land was cultivated by Jews. Arab peoples have freedom and can vote as Israeli citizens in democratic Israel. Let a Jew go to pretty much any of the surrounding Islamic countries and try to participate and see what happens.

http://www.facebook.com/Dave.Phillips.Qld Dave Phillips

Early inroads into the swamps and badlands were made by Jews clearing, cultivating and making habitable the areas now occupied by Arabs. Had the region been left fallow, not one settlement or centre of commerce would be viable today, the history of the region has the two peoples intimately entwined in each others affairs, mostly mutually beneficial till “mohammed” came along only 1400 years ago, as opposed to other Abrahamic religions of 3000 years longevity. Then and only then did the hatred start.

John

Plz stop the war please

Real American

The zionists are not the descendants of Abraham. And anyone who defends the actions of the UN is truly uninformed and guilty of repeating the MSM lies.

Michael Travis

396 Hamas rockets fired into Israeli schools and homes SINCE NOV 14, 2012 . If this happened in Austin TX. you folks would be screaming and crying for a response, or maybe not.

Do you love your children? Would you sit and watch as they were bombed…. and do nothing?

Of course you would, because y’all are Statists and dittoheads.

Israel is the antithesis of globalism….. the Globalists HATE Israel… and so do you.

Birds of a feather, right.

Y’all are the 5th column of the Globalist Corporate takeover…. groveling before your owners!

At least the Israelis are independent and sovereign….. even if they are hated for it.

Jack

The article is shrewdly biased against Israel by slyly stating that Israel started the action. Other than psycopaths (spelling) does ANYONE believe that Israel would fire a single shell into Gaza? And here is a factoid for those who would deceive: There is no Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Real American

In denial much?

Shihab

Israel is digging it’s own grave. Revelation says this. Israel on west side of river and Muslims on right side for the big battle of all. Your old human scripted old book does not go to this, but your rabies know it. They knew about Mohammad 1000s of years ago.

By the way, this battle, Israel dies forever. Will be big and dirty.

The US is changing. Soon, the days of zionists (and not Jews) controlling the head of the US raging bull will end.

Joe in Las Vegas

Your argument is so flawed that I had to laugh. Why not tell the world the truth and admit that you will never rest until Israel is destroyed. By the way it is rabbis and not rabies. This whole conflict can be resolved if only the idiot Muslim fanatical fringe admits that Israel has a right to exist. Israel will be more than happy to work hand in hand with Palestinians for each others mutual benefit. Will this happen? No! Why? Because the lunatics that call for the destruction of Israel control the thoughts of the majority of well intentioned Palestinians who want nothing more than peace and a right to have a safe and peaceful life for their children. It’s funny that in 1948 there was a two state solution that was refused by the Palestinians at the urging of their so called brothers in arms. You would think that after all these years the Palestinians would “get it” and realize that the solution was always in front of them. Break away from the fanatical fringe of the Muslim world and work hand in hand with Israel. Israel would be more than happy to work with Palestinians if their safety was assured.

c

Would you like to give away half of your country? Many of your holy places? And don’t forget the agressive settlement policy of Israel. They won’t stop until they occupy Gaza and West Bank. And don’t forget that Palestinians are second class people in Israel. Have you been there? And if yes, apparently you have just seen, what you wanted to see…

jesse

lol-aggressive settlement policy? are you sh%@*ing me? They GIVE UP land to try to buy peace. They GIVE UP terrorist prisoners to try to buy peace. They THROW their own peoples off their land and out of their houses to try to buy peace. BUT the palestinians who are in the radical minority wont have any part of it. they and hamas and other groups want Israel destroyed and that is their goal. IF their goal was peace, it is right in front of them. Just agree that Israel has a right to exist. Simple. And yes I have been there. And yes i have seen the many evidences of LONGTIME settlement there by the Jewish people

Shihab

Jack jack jack.. Your memory is too short or you are playing dumb. Or you are brain washed

http://twitter.com/jwaldvo680 joe Waldvogel

you’re a freakin idiot porter. it was in retaliation for killing 3 jews.

texasjayahwker

Excuse me joe Waldyogel. Where do you see porters’ name as the author of this new clip in the washington blog??? Ignoramius, every where. No wonder the world is up-side-down!

Greg

The author pretends that rockets from Gaza into Israel just started 3 days
ago.
The rockets from Gaza have been pounding southern cities and villages in
Israel for years, people have 15 secs to get into shelters – several time per
day. But every body knows it, even though western media fails to report about
this. By July 2012 there were more than 500 rockets from the beginning of the
year.

I think, that US elections did postponed/prohibited Israeli response on
those massive rocket attracts from Gaza.
I doubt you will print my comment, though…

Silver Lining

Yes, it is likely that the US elections were one of the influences of the timing here which goes directly to the point of the article. BUT where does the author “pretend…” what you state?

Kenneth Del Bianco

This is unbelievable.The almost continuous rocket bombardment of
Israel is ignored and a story is presented that Israel decides to take out a terrorist on a whim in order to produce a political advantage.Anyone who could present such makebelieve is clearly deluded and in capable of making rational decisions.Please delete me from any future correspondence. Kenneth Del Bianco

Real American

The truth hurts! You have it backwards though. Israel is the one constantly bombing Palestine. Shut off your teevee and read a book.

Joe in Las Vegas

Actually you have it backwards. Israel has been constantly hit with bombing by Palestinians for a year and even more. I don’t watch TV to get my info but I have been to the Middle East and have seen the situation for myself. Get your head out of your ass and wake up to reality. Is there blame to pass along to both sides? Yes. But untill the Palestinians agree that Israel has a right to exist nothing will be accomplished. The day they do Israel will be a good neighbor and help in the building of a safe and secure Palestine. It is in their best interest to do it. Wake the eff up.

craigdc

Joe,
You’re the one that needs to wake up. Israel clearly wants to dominate the mid-east and re-establish an empire that existed there 2,000 years ago, probably even world-wide. That’s the whole political and philosophical underpinning of the Israeli state and that’s why they went there to begin with. In order to survive as a nation, Israel will have to become more radical and more militarized as their population grows within confined borders. That’s an essential part of Jewish identity and without that belief there’s no reason for Israel to exist.

Hannitysfriend

You need to read the Bible! The land belongs to Israel and always will.

Kenneth Shonk

Another religous zealot willing trump our common humanity. Therefore, why don’t you go back to where your ancestors came from. Consistent religous principle requires that all of the Americas be returned to native peoples. Who’s native anyway.

lap skywalker

the land belong to God and the people who live in it.but yu cant take it by force//if yu already find somebody before yu

Kenneth Shonk

Israel clearly wants a secure homeland, but I think world domination is stretching it more than just a fraction.

craigdc

It might be a good thing. The U.S. is really fumbling the ball.

lap skywalker

yu dont understand nothing man..the probleme is not recognition,it all about land sharing.will yu accept i come into yur house and take something like half or more of everything???do yu know that more than 4millons palestinians live in foreign countries in misery because they loose their lands and they have nowhere to go????

dude

there will be no peace in israel as long as netanyahu is head of it….the entire west is at the moment just searching for war constantly….

brian

Deletion noted.

dude

the escalations come also very much from the militaristic israeli government, they want war when it suits their strategies and political purposes, unfortunately the people seeking peace in israel are in the minority as they are in the u.s.

rudebutcool

lets see..10,000 missles have been fired into Israel from “defenseless Hamas” who are these jackasses who wrote this kidding…Hamas and their buddies in Gaza and Suez were warned 100 times to quit and they didn’t. So here we go. Now they cry to the “ant war left”, but they are not anti war, only anti Israel fighting back. Palestinians are nothing but left over Hanzars from WW2. They and their leader were big supporters of Adolf and his merry murderers. Mufti of Jerusalem lived and worked in Berlin when he wasn’t killing jews in the mid east. Read the Hamas charter and see the similarity to Mein Kampf.

Rehmat

Chief Rabbi is not the only one who knows the truth.

“Israel cannot do to Iran what Bibi wants done to Iran. Only Obama can. If there is no US attack on Iran by November, and Obama wins, there may never be a US attack on Iran. No wonder Bibi is frustrated,” Patrick J. Buchanan, Anti-War, April 17, 2012.

“Israel does not want to do it. For as long as I can remember, the Israelis have been trying to get US to do it, because they have long believed that Iran was so big that only a big country could successfully take on the mullahs in a direct confrontation. So Israel’s Iran policy has been to convince us to do whatever the Israelis think is best. And while they’re willing to do their part, they are very reluctant to take on the entire burden,” Michael Leeden, Zionist historian and co-founder of JINSA.

Hamas openly proclaims the destruction of Israel as one of its major objectives. Hamas has accumulated vast stockpiles of weapons to use on Guess Whom? Hamas uses anything and nothing as justification for sending lethal attacks into Israel. The USA would not tolerate threats similar to this from anywhere including (as we saw) far away Afghanistan…neither would any other country…and there is no reason for Israel to tolerate this either.

Real American

How is that war in Afghanistan, based on a false flag attack, working for us?

Daryl Davis

“The USA would not tolerate threats similar to this from anywhere including (as we saw) far away Afghanistan… ”

The USA doesn’t need a threat: any old lie will do (USS Maine, Zimmerman Telegram, Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq WMDs… ).

brian

So Palestine has not been threatened? Throwing people out of their ancestors’ homes and shipping them to camps and isolated cities is not a threat? What country would tolerate this treatment? What group of people would not respond to this?

sperbonzo

Wow, your grasp of history is pretty poor. In 1948 when Israel was established, a few things happened. 1: About 700,000 Jews across the whole middle east were promptly thrown out of their homes and their property confiscated. They were allowed by Israel to move there instead and become citizens. 2: About 800,000 Arabs in Israel were told to leave by the surrounding arab countries, who told them that the Jews would kill them all if they stayed, and promising to arm them and support them in driving the Jews back into the sea. 3. The effort to invade Israel failed. The arabs that had been misled by their fellows were then kept in those border camps by their arab allies. They were not allowed citizenship or allowed to move to any of the other Arab countries that had promised them help. 4. The Arabs that had stayed in Israel however, became full citizens. They mix freely in society, they can vote, the serve in the Knesset, their women can drive cars and walk around without their husbands, and gays are not executed.

Murray Shylock

good points. but does Palestine not have those same justifications? is it not defending itself? say some day a bunch of Mexicans bulldoze your home and plant a nice apartment complex in its place? would you not attack those people?

lap skywalker

how can hamas destroy israel???

John

Hi

lap skywalker

violence is the first sin of this world

Abbi

Good article. And contrary to other pro Israel comments here, factually based. They remind me of die hard racists in Apartheid South Africa who blindly justified their human rights abuses with similar vitriol. From what I can gather from other sources, Obama is in negotiations with Iran to drop sanctions and the Pentagon is against war with Iran. I do believe this is the core motivation behind Israel’s aggression. There is also a growing anti- Israel sentiment in the USA. where people are very tired of being led by the nose by Zionists in their congress and controlling their banking system and using Americans and American military to fight senseless wars under false pretenses in the Middle East. Iran would be such an example following on from the 9/11 lie which led to Afghanistan and the WMD lie which led to Iraq. Gaza and the West bank are no more and no less that a Holocaust perpetrated against a people whose only crime is to have lived in Palestine for many, many generations, going back thousands of years. The Zionists on the other hand, Eastern European Khazar converts to Judaism have no such claim.

texasjayhawker

Mercy! What a bunch of radicals! I sure am glad I follow the only “true living GOD – YHWH”. Thru his only SON, YEHSHUA, may I have eternal life. YHWH- The Mighty One! (By the way mohammad was only selected from hundreds of pagan gods around the 7th century.) (Also khazarians are not Isreilites!)

http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/ Big Dan

Does anyone really believe there’s people in Gaza (terrorists, cavemen, whatever) firing THOUSANDS of missiles from a small area totally surrounded/controlled by Israel? And they somehow smuggle thousands of missiles in, but can’t smuggle food in? And right under the noses of the best in the world, Israel? Does anyone really believe that? And for multi-days to boot? I don’t believe it. Maybe someone’s shooting rockets, but it’s not “terrorists”. No way does that pass any type of smell test whatsoever. Baloney! Why is no one saying this? That it virtually impossible to believe this? And they don’t see them after say ONE missile? And we never see when they “get them”, all the missiles they have? No satellites can see this? No way, friends, I don’t believe it.

Joe in Las Vegas

You are totally off your rocker…Have you ever been to Israel? The fact is that yes they do smuggle weapons into Gaza and yes they do and have been firing rockets into Israel almost non stop. I have been there and have seen it for myself. There is also another fact that somehow goes unreported. If it were not for Israel allowing Palestinians into Israel to work on a daily basis there would be even more poverty in so called Palestine. There is a large arab population in Israel that have full rights including the right to vote. They are represented in the Kinnesset.The arab majority has even elected a Jewish mayor in one town. Does this sound like they have problems in Israel? The simple fact is that all the Palestinians have to do is allow Israel the right to exist and work hand in hand with Israel to make for a better life for all. I have a better solution for this mess and I am amazed that nobody has thought about this. Take everybody who is a so called Palestinian out of the West Bank and Jerusalem and give them land equal in size connected to Gaza and make that their homeland. Jerusalem will always be an open city if it is controlled by Israel and the simple fact is that it would not be if it were controlled by Muslims. This is a much more simple solution to the Arab Israeli problem. If you giive Palestine land that is connected along Gaza and they have acces to the sea then they can have deep water ports to allow for their success.

http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/ Big Dan

Explain to us how they smuggle thousands of rockets & missiles into Gaza. No one explains this. “Super secret” tunnels? How can they continue for days to fire rockets in a area under control and lockdown of the country they’re firing at? Don’t they SEE the rockets taking off and say, “THERE THEY ARE!”? How does ABC have cameras trained on “secret” spot they’re firing them from BEFORE they are fired? These are some common sense questions I have that no one wants to answer.

And frankly YOU didn’t answer my very good questions, which is noteworthy. Can’t anyone answer these questions?

And don’t say “off your rocker”, that makes you less credible making statements like that.

You answered ZERO of my questions, did you think I wouldn’t notice that? Duh?

They “smuggle” thousands of rockets and missiles into Gaza, under complete control, in super secret tunnels that aren’t secret as somehow they are reported on? How can you know about “secret tunnels” if they’re secret?

Silver Lining

Big Dan – I share your skepticism — but am kept in check by a few items that do make smuggling of munitions into Gaza plausible. The recent dramatic shift in the Egyptian political regime is not to be overlooked here, especially when geography clearly illustrates access from Egypt to Gaza. In addition is a much more vague perspective that has to do with the unfolding back story of what actually happened in Ben Gazi on 11-Sep-2012 (we may never know the truth). It seems that one comment down-thread from the contributor called ” In and out of the safe room” alludes to a particular supply chain out of Sudan — I for one would like to see more information on that as it might provide better insight into what is actually happening from the larger perspective. All of that said, I am inclined to think that the focus of GW’s article (including embedded supporting links) is plausible from a political and timing perspective.

http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/ Big Dan

I just can’t believe that for DAYS they’re firing off rockets and for a length of time and not being stopped. I mean, unless there’s something funny going on like they’re “letting” them do it for justification of an onslaught. If someone is shooting off rockets in a controlled area, you can *** SEE *** the rockets launching. Am I missing something here? And one ABC clip they have the cameras trained on a “secret” spot they’re launching them from BEFORE they’re launched? How did the cameraman know to focus his camera there?

http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/ Big Dan

Look at this clip: how was the ABC camera on that spot BEFORE the rockets took off?

I’m not trying to be a wiseguy, these are really good questions. Frankly I can’t believe no one’s asking, like collective stupidity?

http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/ Big Dan

And how do we know ISRAEL isn’t firing them as a false flag? They do false flags all the time. We DON’T know. Period. We don’t know.

West Bank Settler

Since Israel gave up security control of the Philadelphi corridor (you can google this) between Egypt and Gaza, the smuggling tunnels are going full blast, but no longer has any authority to stop it. And yes, they can see the missiles coming from the backyards of the mosques and kindergartens and hospitals and private residences, but can’t take them out for fear of harming civilians. (That’s what a ground incursion will be designed to fix.) Hamas knows this and has no qualms at all about putting their civilians in harm’s way, but they also know that Israel won’t target civilians and civilian infrastructure like they do. The bombers are terrorists because they do not target military installations. They shoot into residential neighborhoods and shopping districts for no other reason than to terrorize the civilian population.

I am one Israeli who is not proud of my government’s warped sense of morality and “purity of arms.” I think it’s sick that they prefer our own innocents to suffer. The Gazans voted for Hamas and they are culpable for what Hamas does from their backyards. I’m all for carpet-bombing the whole place like any proud American would do to anyone who put them through the same ordeal.

brian

You STINK of racism. When we kill its good, when they kill its bad. Israelis like to talk about fear and being scared. Palestinians talk about their dead friends and relatives.

Cowboy Joe in Sydney Australia

yes I believe it. Smuggled in via tunnels for years. Cars as well, cut into sections.

james

The theories presented by this article are not particularly compelling, (suffice to say, it’s one more escalation in an ongoing campaign of conquest by the zionist regime… present political circumstances providing whatever rationale as cover, to keep the rest of us arguing/speculating).
Of far more interest to me is the plethora of pro-zionist comments (filling up the screen) on a site that has consistently shown itself to be anti-zionist. i.e. it indicates an ORGANIZED CAMPAIGN, designed to manage “the debate,” sustain the propaganda, and so on.

Beyond the stupidity of their remarks, these trolls think we’re unable to recognize their entirely-predictable behavior. DUHHHH!!!!

Joe in Las Vegas

Until you people go to the Middle East and see the truth for yourselves you will never understand what really is going on. I am not pro anything other than pro peace. I am not a shill for Zionists but I am a proud American. The simple fact is that I have been to the Middle East and have witnessed for myself the simple fact that in Israel arabs have a right to vote and have representation in the Kinnesset. Can the same be said for Jews living in Muslim countries? Oh wait! There were 840000 Jews living in Muslim countries that had no rights and were persecuted on a daily basis. They lived in fear for their lives and had to risk life and limb to get the hell out of these idiotic countries. By the way there were 725000 so called Palestinians that were offered a two state solution in 1948 and they refused it. Most of these so called Palestinians were from Jordan and were kicked out and for whatever reason the world seems to feel that they are from Palestine. It amazes me that there are Americans who side with a people who want nothing more than the destruction of Israel and Americans for one reason and one reason only. Their belief in another deity.

Before you allow your hatred for Jews to enter into your argument I challenge you to go to Israel and see the situation for yourself. Do you think that you would be allowed to visit Jerusalem and practice your faith (if you have one) if the Muslims controlled it? With Israel in control of Jerusalem the whole world has the freedom to visit the area that is the birth of the major religions of the world. I am not a religious zealot (I am an agnostic) but I do recognize this is one fact that cannot be denied. Give the authority over Jerusalem to Muslims and there will be no Jerusalem for the other religions of the world.

exomike

Ah, the yammering cry of the Hasbara Bird of Occupied Palestine!

brian

This is a lie from one end to the other. The only countries in history that have tolerated and not persecuted Jews have been Muslim countries- for the better part of 500 years. Thanks for your attempts at revision. Trying to see things from a different perspective occasionally is refreshing. I guess it’s “simple” because you’ve been there…. Its not simple to get clean drinking water in Gaza. Not simple to get basic pregnancy medication and hospital equipment. Gazans aren’t allowed to import musical instruments for their children. Sounds simple… cuz you’ve been there…

lap skywalker

this is the typical argument of the apartheid regime that black south africans come from another countries

exomike

So you to can hear the yammering cry of the Hasbara Bird of Occupied Palestine!

cj

one sided propaganda never goes well!!! you show more hate than the KKK

Hi!, Patrons Of Washington Blog Et Al:
To become more thoroughly involved in becoming informed about who, what & when regards the lands occupied by both the Isralis & the Palastinians contained by British rule, please find and read the book which explains it titled: CONQUEST THROUGH IMMIGRATION. Edify your beliefs via this accurate historical background, before relating your views towards ohers unnecessarily infused with rancor.
RUSS SMITH, CALIFORNIA (One Of OUR Broke States & Going Broker Every Day)resmith@wcisp.com

Palestinian sympathizers always look for a self-hating jew to justify their antisemitic rants.

BO

I did not know that Porter had a problem with Israel. I refuse to get any more publications from your stupid ass. Learn some history before you publish any more of that diarrhea. Hamas has no value for human life and has no right to exist. Bravo Israel.

U.S.A.

WOW! Total horses**t! Hamas started firing missiles before any attack on Gaza. Israel waited and watched as the Hamas fired rockets exploded in the Israeli countryside and picked them out of the air with the Iron Dome until Hamas started targeting the most heavily populated area in Israel, Tel Aviv with newer longer range Iranian designed missiles. Israel cannot reason with Hamas as Hamas does not recognize Israel and only wants to kill the Israelis. How can you have a legititmate and productive conversation with someone who only wants to kill you? Have you ever wondered why the Palestinian supporters (Iran, Saudi Arabia…) have the money to send weapons, but not to provide the Palestinans with education and job skills that could be used to produce a positive effect on their society? Because if the Palestinians had happy, productive lives, they would not have their eternal discontent, calling for the eradication of Israel. All blog readers, get your truthful news elsewhere…as it is certainly not here.

Me,too

What does Israel expect from a people it has continuously sanctioned, imprisoned (within an open-air jail surrounded by walls and razor wire), killed (including countess civilians, not to mention the foreign peace activists in Gaza (on behalf of Gazans), and generally humiliated? Wish the press were as unbiased. Maybe then people would stop blaming the real victims. Americans even blamed Rachel Corrie for her death in Gaza.

West Bank Settler

More warped “morality.”

“Gaza Crossing Open to Medical Supplies, Food

The Kerem Shalom crossing between the Negev and Gaza will be open Sunday to trucks bringing medicine and food into Gaza.

Prior to the latest round of terrorist attacks Israel was working to boost Gaza exports through its Negev crossings. However, crossings were forced to a limited-activity status due to the security situation.”

Let them bring it through the tunnels to Egypt!! Feeding your enemy while you’re at war with them is the best way to prolong the pain. If you’re going to fight a war, fight it and be done with it! Bring Hamas and those who voted it into power in Gaza to its knees and make them beg for peace. That’s how you fight a war! War is not pretty and it’s not “humanitarian.” It’s no kindness to enable war to go on endlessly without a clear resolution – a clear victor and a clear loser.

Shame on Porter Stansbury for this anti-Israeli position. You obviously are not astute enough to know your bible. Israel and Jerusalem, in particular, is God’s covenant land given to the heirs of Abraham, that would be us in the land of America. The Arabs are the instigators as well as the perpetrators who believe they will make their Mahdi messiah come quicker by provoking the Jews. When you use only your secular mind to analyze this issue, you will always do so incorrectly. Get biblically educated!

Michael

As individuals we are are good and bad, but as humanity we are are real joke. The whole of the world’s population can just about fit on the Isle of Wight, which is the tiny island at the bottom of England. With this in mind, why do we fight and die for land? Pathetic!!!